Afghan and Mariner's Compass update

It seems like I mostly spin my wheels and don't get too much done, but I did manage to get the crocheted afghan finished that I started in January, so that makes another completion for February. I did a lot of it while on the road traveling to and from California. The rest was done while watching TV. It was an easy pattern, and since I hadn't done anything that big for many years, it was a good pattern to start with.

I am absolutely no good at just sitting and watching without doing something, so now it will need to be something else.

This other picture is of my Mariner's Compass after attaching the "halo." The white center is just a reflection from the flash, I guess. I haven't appliqued on the center yet. It is the same fabric as the triangles in the halo. This has turned into pretty much a design-as-you-go project. I have also squared it up since I took the picture. I'll make another border. I'm thinking it will end up somewhere between 36 and 40 inches square. At least that is my current thought.


I also put the borders on another Project Linus quilt today. It is not as lively and pretty as I had hoped, but hopefully it will make some child happy. I'll post a picture of it another time - probably after I sandwich, quilt and bind it.

We got word that a niece is getting married near San Francisco toward the end of March, so that will mean another trip to CA. It also means I won't have as much sewing time in March, so I'll have to get my tailbone in gear before we go.

I sure enjoy looking at other folks' blogs, and feel like I still have so much to learn. The blogs are just such an inspiration.

Current project

One of my goals for 2009 is to make a Mariner's Compass quilt. This is a picture of the compass portion. I still have to applique on the center piece, and I am going to make a halo to put around it (I think). I have several ideas of what I want to do with the Compass, and one of those ideas involves adding some New York Beauty blocks in some respect. Anyway, I really enjoyed making this part of it, and am looking forward to making some progress on the rest of it. It will sort of be designed and planned as I go along.

The flakes that you can possibly see are from starch and will be gone when I launder the completed quilt, if not before.

I loved making this, and if I knew just what to do with them, I would really enjoy making more. The fabrics in this one are batiks except for the background, which is a Moda marble.

This will certainly count for a guild challenge, which I talked about in an earlier post. It is a challenge that will continue for a while.

Unrelated to quilting, our weather here has been gorgeous (for February). We have been able to get out and take a walk and will go again after while. We have a sick grandson (Tanner) with us right now. No matter what we do, we can't get a handle on his cough. His mom is headed home from work, and hopefully will have found a magic potion that will bring it under control.

February completion

Well, I managed one completion before the middle of February. This is the string quilt that I posted about before, but now it is done! It is a Project Linus quilt.

I got together with a couple other friends and we worked on charity quilts yesterday. When the Project Linus volunteer for Portland/Vancouver met my friend at the quilt shop last week, she picked up at least a dozen quilts and some fleece throws. She told us that she had just come from a funeral home where she had left three quilts. They were to go to the three young children of a soldier who was killed in Iraq. Isn't that just the saddest thing?

On a more cheerful note, I have been accumulating some fabrics that I am going to use for my Mariner's Compass. I am hoping to start working on it a bit tomorrow. I have a couple patterns printed out, and I need to make a choice of which one I am going to use.

Time is slipping by!

Oh my gosh, it’s February 10 already, and I haven’t posted for quite some time.

We went to Seattle earlier this week to see my niece and her husband and their new baby boy. They named him Braden James. He is so cute, and I just forget how small the new babies are. My sister and her husband were there from Tucson, so we got to spend some time with them also. We stayed in a hotel in downtown Seattle and the weather was so nice, so we got out and walked and enjoyed the time so much.

My quilt presentation at the guild meeting went well. I took about eight quilts to show. The Winter Wonderland seemed to be most everyone’s favorite. I am a bit partial to it also, I guess. Spring isn’t here yet in Oregon, so it is still on display. I think when the first crocuses pop their pretty little heads out that I will then put it away, but until then it stays on the couch.

The guild meeting was a bit overwhelming. We have new leaders this year, and they have quite an agenda for us. The challenge they have put together is to think of new quilting-related things that we would like to try, and then to do something new to us each month and bring it to the guild meeting to show. It doesn’t have to be a completed project, but I’m not too keen on starting a bunch of stuff to make more UFOs. I have decided to alter the challenge a bit to fit what I want to do this year. My first challenge (not really a challenge, but something I have wanted to do) is to make a string quilt for Project Linus (more about this quilt top later). Another thing I am going to do is make a Mariner’s Compass quilt. I have been pulling fabrics together and will start that perhaps this weekend. That will be more of a challenge, but most of the things I am going to do will be more along the line of things I really want to do – not necessarily difficult things. One thing I want to do is use up some of my stash. I still seem to be bringing more in than I'm using, but I really do want to change that.

Now, about my string quilt. I had such a good time piecing it. I cut 6-1/2 inch pieces of paper and paper pieced the strings on them. I pulled fabric from my scrap tub and if it was the right size, I pressed it and cut it. I wanted to use mediums and darks, and then I saw some string placemats that had big dots appliquéd on them, and I thought what a great idea that would be, so as you can see, I did that also. This is a pic of the top. I am working on quilting it. I am not pleased with my quilting on this project, but it will have to do.

We had a skiff of snow today, and it snowed a bit for quite a bit of the day, but the temp was 35, so it didn't stick and just melted, which is just fine with me. We had more than enough in December.